Methods

Prospective, descriptive epidemiologic study in a multidisciplinary pediatric ICU of a tertiary-care university hospital.

Upper GI bleeding was considered to be present if hematemesis occurred or blood was present in the gastric tube.

An upper GI bleed was qualified as clinically significant if two or three reviewers independently assessed that at least one of the six complications considered for analysis was attributable to the upper GI bleed.

Results

A cohort of 1114 consecutive admissions was enrolled ; 108 (9.7%) were excluded mostly (37.0%) because they already had an upper GI bleed at entry to the pediatric ICU.